Line Stage Preamps that blew you away $2500 Edition

@rob2rc21  I have the Quicksilver now (non remote) and it blasts through tubes in 6 months, hence this thread. If I could find a solution I'd keep it. Otherwise its $100 in NOS tubes every 6 months (although the current ones are dumping after 30 hours).

Hey gochurchgo, for future reference, what cable are you using to connect your subs to you amp? As I still have one 15" PSA sub?

What did the Quicksilver manufacture have to say when you told them the problem you having with fast burning tubes? You would think NOS would be more robust?

Thanks

I think there have been many excellent suggestions. I don’t believe any of which would be a bad choice. Tubes every 6 months? That can’t be normal,can it?  Maybe have a tech take a peek under the hood. I’ve been running tube preamps for about 7 or 8 years now,and only had 1 tube failure.  

@tyray My subs are now pig tailed off the speaker terminals of my mains. So banana from amp to lower posts -> spade jumpers to upper posts -> these cables banana from upper posts to RCA in on the subs.

He said: "1500 hours sounds pretty normal for tube life. We supply the chinese tubes and they last 500 hours and the Mullard 4004 about 1500-2000 hours".

Wow! I didn’t know you could do that! But it makes sense. It’s just a typical +/- connection. If the mains are 8 ohm and the subs are 8 ohm and the amp is 8 ohm it reads a 4 ohm load because they are wired in parallel? And the 4 ohm load gives a little boast. Bloody brilliant.

Put the Quicksilver up for sale. And get a different preamp. No problem if used.